Photographers are drawn to beauty, and we are drawn to photographers. As of late, however, we’ve focused primarily on mother nature’s deft brushstrokes — whether in the beauty of a happy festival goer or the blue light bathing a coastline as the tide encroaches on the sand. Still, the manmade exquisiteness of an urban setting is no less cherished by followers on Instagram or writers at Uproxx.
If you’re more interested in skylines and architecture than trees and skies peppered with stars, we’ve got the info you need to take your work to the next level. Urban photographer Jason Lumsden, known to his thousands of Instagram followers as @waywelling, lives just outside of Chicago and can be found downtown every weekend capturing the city in sensational images. We discovered him when Nikon featured him as part of their #Nikon100 line-up.
“The city is alive and ever changing which provides endless opportunities to capture something amazing,” Lumsden says. “Whether it’s a new building, the way the light is shining that day, or Chicago’s infamous moody weather, there’s always something fresh to shoot.”
When Lumsden and his wife honeymooned in Santorini, Greece, he took as many pictures as he could with an iPhone 4, which was hardly the tool he needed to create the memories he wanted. At that moment, he vowed to never again be surrounded by such beauty without a way to take high-quality pics. He’s been rolling with professional gear ever since, honing his skills and treating followers with peak urban landscape images.
Here are Lumsden’s rules for capturing city vistas with a camera.
Rule 1: Get On Instagram
Instagram just hooked me. The beautiful imagery that was readily available at our fingertips. Obviously, you have to find some amazing shooters out there, which is not hard to do on Instagram because there are plenty of them.
There are people that I find now that I’ve never even heard of that have like a hundred thousand followers. They’re incredible… but they started somewhere.
I think any artist when they first start is replicating others until they find their own style, which I feel like I’m just now starting to do. That’s about two years into the process. But I think styles are something that will be worked on throughout however long I do this. So hopefully, for the rest of my life, I’ll be trying to kind of shape and mold my style into whatever it’s gonna grow into.
Rule 2: Get Out There
It is just a matter of picking up the camera and getting out there. Really, hitting the streets as much as I could was key. Then over time, your eye improves. Time is really what it is. Just being out there and shooting, your eye will improve over time.
I shoot as much as I can. I do have a full-time job, so usually I’m out on the weekends. Any free time I have, pretty much is dedicated to photography, and developing, and getting better.
Eventually, as I keep improving, I will start taking my old stuff down just because I’ll be embarrassed by it. But I still have my old stuff up there. When I look at my early stuff compared to now, it’s not even close. It’s night and day, but it’s taken a long time to get to where I am. I’m diligent and I don’t go a day, not even one day, without editing something that I have.
Rule 3: Make Photography Friends
In my early days with trying to go out and shoot, it was by myself for the most part. Then over time, as soon as you start to get somewhat decent, it’s not hard to meet others with similar interests that are like-minded. Then, you can meet up.
It’s a great idea to network. Go to IG meet-ups and stuff like that. That is an awesome way to be around other creatives. It’s impossible to go to one of those and not be inspired by somebody because you get that creative energy.
So that helps a great deal, just getting out there by yourself if you need to, at first. As much as you can until you improve to a point where other people start to take notice. You gain respect that way. Then, people are a lot more open to meeting up with you and going out and shooting if they respect what you’re doing. But showing passion can get you there, too.
As far as just meeting up with people, if you show passion and you’ve given genuine compliments to other people on IG (telling them how much you really appreciate their work) it’s a great way to open a door. They might say, “Hey, let’s go out and shoot sometime together.” This has happened to me, as well. But generally speaking, I was going out by myself. I’ve just now started to want to meet up with more people.
The creative energy that comes when you have two, three, four, five, whatever it’s going to be, people together is just amazing.
Rule 4: Look For Symmetry
For me, I’ve always been drawn to strong leading lines, strong lines in general and symmetry. My eye is kind of drawn to that. I think the human eye, in general, is drawn to symmetry. We look for it.
It’s crazy, when I did my photos in the posts, if they’re off center even a little bit, I work on them until I can get something with the composition that I’m looking for. If I can’t, then I just scrap the photo. There’s a lot of discipline that goes into all that’s involved with this, too. Letting go of what you know is not your best work is not always the easiest thing. We’re always our harshest critics.
Rule 5: Find The Right Light
Lighting is something, obviously, every photographer has to consider. I just recently had a post where I got right. It’s a classic spot in Chicago that a lot of Chicago photographers know about. I’ve shot it before, but I’ve never really been really excited about the shot that I got. I went back around sunset, and that made all the difference in the world. The colors were right, and I got an incredible shot. It’s been done many times over in Chicago, but I don’t care about that.
Rule 6: Trust That Your Take Is Different
The conditions change, weather conditions change, it’s always a different shot. Editing styles are different. But I’ve seen that a lot in my friends’ stories and stuff like that on Instagram, people are worried about our spots getting played out.
I don’t think they are.In my personal opinion, Instagram definitely has put a lot of spots on the map. If you’re a photographer, you’re drawn to go try to get those shots. Photographers quite frankly, have a great eye for what’s beautiful, and they’re drawn to that. But I strongly believe that we make it our own. We have our own take on it.
In the end, even when I go on these meets, you have 10-20 photographers shooting the same exact thing. Rarely, if ever, do I see the exact same post come from those meets. There’s always something different in the editing style, or the lighting, or whatever it might be.
Rule 7: Use Editing Programs
I use Lightroom and Photoshop, which you don’t have to. I’ve seen plenty of other people use just free apps on their phones, but that’s what I choose to use.
I recommend finding someone and following their example. Like, Max Reeves is my favorite photographer from Instagram. He shoots landscapes mostly. But I purchased his editing tutorials and just started working with them. I took what I loved and put it into urban photography, which I think, I hope is helping me have my own style. I’m taking what he was using with landscape — which is a whole other ball game — and I’m trying to implement that into urban photography. There’s tons of stuff on YouTube that’s absolutely free.
You can purchase presets through Lightroom. Some of them have done that. I’ve never done that. But they said it’s helped them. They looked at the settings and manipulated them from there to try to develop their own style.
Rule 8: Do Your Homework
If you love photography, if you want to get into it, there’s so much information readily available. There’s no excuse for not learning, and developing, and getting better with all that. Even just shooting in general.
Me being a highly visual person, I can see things in my head how I want them, so that helps a great deal before I shoot. That’s literally just time. Being on Instagram, seeing amazing work, and then also going out into the field and trying to see the frame in my head before I shoot the shot and how I’m gonna end it works for me.
Rule 9: Framing Matters
I was actually just looking at some earlier stuff that I have in my Lightroom catalog. It’s unusable. I took some shots in New York City and it’s just not centered correctly. There’s no way of salvaging what I actually shot. Especially, if you’re shooting for your Instagram in particular because it’s not how we see things.
We see things more horizontal, whereas Instagram is forcing us to see everything vertical. You’ll see we, myself included are all shooting vertically now. Because it’s built for a cellphone app, most shots you’re gonna see on Instagram are vertical. Vertical shots do better on Instagram, as far as engagement is concerned as well. You have to take that into consideration.
Rule 10: Know Your Equipment
It’s hugely important to understand your equipment and what it’s capable of doing. If you do have to mobilize and move up or further away based on what you’re shooting with, knowing that is highly important, especially as far as framing and composition are concerned and the end product.
For me, without a doubt, it’s about wide angle. Nikon makes amazing stuff. Their 14 to 24 lens is incredible. I shoot with the D750. I think you’re pretty much golden if you have a wide-angle lens, 16 to 35s I hear are great; 11 to 24s are great. Me personally, I use 14 to 24. I also have the 15 to 30, which is incredible. Then, a 24 to 70 and you’re good to go.
I know other shooters use other things. But with those two lenses, I think you can get pretty much anything you would want to get, as far as urban photography is concerned.
If you’re a street shooter, you might want something else. Street photography you’re focusing on moments. People are always involved in that. And, I think lifestyle is more set up. You’re looking for somebody to pose, wear a nice outfit, or whatever it might be, a nice watch, whatever it might be. I don’t know how candid it is. Street is just raw. It’s whatever is happening at the moment. You’re trying to capture it. Lifestyle can be that, I guess. But lifestyle always seemed to me to be more kind of rehearsed.
Rule 11: Don’t Let Fear Rule
Don’t be afraid. You’re gonna get judgment. Any artist, anything you’re trying to do, I don’t care what you’re trying to do. Musician, writer, photographer, I think it all falls in the same wheelhouse. I think a lot of people are apprehensive about getting started because they’re afraid of judgment. It’s okay to suck. You’re gonna suck at first. But just keep going through the walls and eventually you’ll get better.
If it’s something you love and you’re passionate about, just take it seriously for sure. Treat it with respect and grow. There’s nothing to worry about, it’s just pictures. At the end of the day, it’s just pictures.
